Through Thick and Thin (EriSol)
by TheDarkestEntities
Summary: TTaT shows how Eridan and Sollux slowly have to both inch their way past the secret depression that grows gradually worse for Sollux, and brings up memories from Eridan's past when he went through the same state as Sollux has to go through. The staged age for them is 8 sweeps(18.5 years). Trigger warnings: Depression, Self Harm/'Attempts', Adult Themes, Cursing.
1. Harassment

On a meteor made long after Earth and Alternia were destroyed, and everything started to slow, the chaos of the game resolved into the creation of a new universe. In this period of time in this new universe, in this specific timeline, a troll named Sollux Captor is, at the moment, sitting and quietly staring at his husktop. At this moment, unknown to all of his other friends, he wasn't feeling his best, and for some reason unknown to him, he just slowly started to get less and less satisfied with still living, even depressed nowadays. He didn't tell anyone that he felt depressed though, and for now just hid it from everyone. He would usually be coding or trolling one of his comrades at the moment, but thankfully after so long of him ignoring their attempts at interacting with him, almost all ignored him nowadays. Of course, almost all, and there was a singular one that seemed to always pester him more than all the others had done, and was bugging him even now actually. Eridan Ampora, a quite obnoxious seadweller in Sollux's mind, never ceased to be there to try to continuously nag at him or poke at his last nerve.

Eridan, on the other note actually, was quite curious of what was going on with Sollux at the moment. He had noticed after a bit of observation that Sollux was becoming more and more unattached to his 'friend' group, and also starting to seem less affected by your constant pestering of what the whole problem could be. He was suspicious that it might be something that was extremely important, or just plain out personal, or even a dark secret, which means that he had to figure out what it was. He was even more suspicious that something was going on between him and just their friends in general. Even Karkat, who seemed to be his best friend, was being blown off even in his rants at Sollux. Though it may or may not be very pointless, Eridan decided that he would message Sollux about it once again. He started to cease talking to him a lot, but once in a blue moon when he did start up a conversation and earn a few replies from the yellowblood. It was all luck, but he would finally get another conversation out of Sollux.

'-caligulasAquarium [CA] started trolling twinArmageddons [TA]-

CA: sollux i knoww you are there

CA: answwer me for once dammit this is not a game

CA: if you dont answwer i wwill spam your chat

TA: what do you want eriidan

CA: i wwanna talk for once because you havve been actin really wweird lately

TA: 2o what maybe ii dont wanna talk to you iif you havent figured that out by now, really, you are fuckiing annoyiing

CA: i havve but i chose not to acknowwledge that fact

CA: especially since i knoww that evveryone else wwont bother you

TA: ...'

Eridan was right and Sollux knew that he was. Everyone stopped harassing him recently. Maybe Eridan could be alright company. Possibly. Then again, it might end up badly if he is even more annoying in the flesh. He thought over it for a second. It was a slightly large risk for Sollux at the moment, and Eridan might not even come over. So, Sollux decided to risk it and just stealthily ask him if he wanted to come over to his hive.

'TA: the real rea2on that you are bugging me ii2 becau2e you are bored

CA: not entirely

TA: ye2 entirely

CA: so wwhat, it's fun to harass you

TA: wow don't I feel flattered on that fact

CA: you should be

TA: ii wa2 goiing to iinviite you over but now ii think im in too much 2hocked to do 2o now

CA: hey wwait a minute that isn't fair

TA: well maybe ii make the rule2

CA: wwell maybe I break your rules anywways and am gonna come over even if you don't wwant me to, how about that

TA: my door is locked a2 well, ju2t by the way

CA: oh come on, let me come over it wwill be fun'

Sollux hesitated, then replied:

'TA: fiine whatever

CA: okay then unlock the door cause I already wwalked here and am outside'


	2. Hiding the Truth

"That and I wwanted to knoww wwhy you havve been avvoiding me an evveryone else," Eridan casually rolled his eyes and brushes some of his hair out of his face and back to where they belong.

"That ith none of your concern athhole," He looked over at Eridan with a light growl.

"Yes it is an i wwanna knoww," Eridan looks back just as unamused at this situation as Sollux seemed to be, "Noww just tell me already it is not a huge secret that you can keep from me captor."

"I dont have to tell you anything," Sollux crossed his arms, being quite stubborn so that Eridan can't tell, thankfully making it so that he couldnt.

"Yes you do noww just fuckin tell me!" Eridan sat up and glared at Sollux.

Sollux let out a light growl, irritated at his instinct to want to blackrom with Eridan and just get plain out angry with him in the first place from all the nonsense that Eridan usually tried to force on him, "Drop the thubject eridan, or elthe."

"Or 'elthe' wwhat?" Eridan smirked, obviously actually getting a kick out of this.

"Or elthe I'm going to fucking hurt you, " Sollux snapped at him quite sharply.

"I'd like to see you try," Eridan rolls his eyes.

Sollux growls a bit louder than he had before and got up, quickly moving and tackling Eridan into the pillow pile. He wrestled him then cheating just a little to pin Eridan with his psionics, earning a pull, and then a rough kiss. Eridan slightly growled and kissed roughly back against Sollux's lips. They broke away a few times to curse at each other and their situations such as using phrases 'damn you' and fuckin hell'. A few faintly noticeable moans danced between the curses, and they continued their newly found sloppy make out session, along with a few small shifts every so often so it was comfortable while they did kiss. Sollux pulled away to catch a breath, and pulled Eridan's scarf so it was tight around the others neck slightly.

Eridan pecked Sollux's lips, earning a playful growl from Sollux. Sollux trailed the kiss and made Eridan try and follow, then playfully nipped at each other's lips a few times, an irritated kiss at being taunted with the kisses escaping Eridan, who finally said, "Go fuck yourself captor you are a fuckin tease."

Sollux smirked and Eridan propped himself up with his elbows so he was within kissing reach of Sollux again, "Why thould I go fuck mythelf when I could just make you do it for me." Sollux suddenly pushed Eridan down into his crotch and chuckled. Eridan flared about for a bit and finally was able to pull back.

"SOLLUX!" Eridan growled at him once he was free, "Don't do that again you piece of shit." He lightly smacked Sollux's arm, "Fuckin rude."

Sollux just chuckled a little and slowly stopped and his smirk slowly faded, "Eh I'll do that whenever I want to, just deal with it." His smile had turned back into a frown.

Eridan rolled his eyes and gave Sollux another gentler kiss, wrapping his arms around Sollux's torso, "Stop frowning it bothers me."

Sollux playfully pushed Eridan back down and rested his head on Eridan's chest with a light huff, "I'll continue to thtand by what I thaid before. I'd do what I want when I feel like it."

Eridan shook his head and quietly started to just play with Sollux's hair a bit, "You know there are times wwhen I swear I can say you are seriously fucking insane."

"I know that already," Sollux frowns, and merely just dead-weights on Eridan so he was slightly being crushed and also lain on. Eridan didn't seem to mind this and just subconsciously still continued to play with and pet Sollux's hair, one arm still wrapped around Sollux's waist.

Sollux held back a purr and huffed at this, eventually just closing his eyes. He loosely wrapped his arms around Eridan's shoulders and rested his head on the others chest. He thought to himself for a while and hoped that Eridan couldn't tell what the actual problem was, at least for the time being. He also did hope that he would eventually found out. He hated feeling so shitty all the time. After thinking for a while he slowly started to just doze off into Eridan's touch, but was interrupted by Eridan talking once again before he could really get to sleep.

Eridan glanced down at Sollux and rolls his eyes, "gonna tell me wwhat's been botherin you yet or are you still gonna be difficult about this secret is?"


	3. Finally Breaking

Sollux sighed lightly, but still quite overdramatically, letting out a grumble, "okay thure then I'll get to thay that you're probably going to get thick and that I got thick becauthe of it too," Sollux smirked and Eridan merely growled lightly at him and sighed.  
"Sollux I swear if you got me sick I wwill never let you live it down and wwill make you take care of me if I do," Eridan rolls his eyes and let out a light huff.

"Whatever you thay, I don't necertharily have to do what you tell me to do you realize," he quietly smirks and then just sighs and relaxes a bit on Eridan.

"Doesn't necessarily mean you wwont though, you wwould eventually give in and take care of me since you know other people wwouldnt," Eridan shakes his head, glancing down at Sollux.

Sollux shrugged and nodded just a little bit, glancing back up at Eridan, "I probably would end up doing tho truthfully, even though you would probably get annoying at times, I probably thtill would," he teased the sea dweller lightly. Eridan just rolled his eyes at that, but felt a bit flattered that the one that seemed to hate him more than most actually would take care of him when no one else really would want to.

"So, let me get this straight. You pushed everyone away because you are sick and don't wwanna try and deal wwith everyone according to you and not let them get sick?" Eridan raised an eyebrow.

"Yep," Sollux shrugged.

Eridan just rolled his eyes, knowing that probably wasn't the singular issue that was probably really bothering him to this length. He did decide to stop bothering him about it at the moment as seeing from what he could that Sollux was quite sleepy and that he was just nagging at him so that he didn't sleep. He petted Sollux's hair again as the yellow blood started to once again fall asleep. A faint purr escaped from Sollux, and was just barely audible to Eridan, nonetheless making the sea dwellers lips twitch into a second of a smile, but nothing more. Eridan thought about what might actually be the true problem with Sollux. When Sollux was finally fast asleep and slightly curled up on Eridan's chest, he felt as if he should leave Sollux so that he could sleep. Eridan carefully laid Sollux down into the pillows, and covered him with his cape.

After doing so, he went off to his own respite-block to think more about the problem that could be nagging at Sollux more than he usually did to the point of pushing pretty much everyone away and attempting to push him away as well. It wasn't very obvious to Eridan, especially with Sollux being careful not to let him tell completely, but not give off too much that it wasn't the only thing that was the matter. It was still seemingly off that a mere sickness would make Sollux act this way in Eridan's opinion.

The day started to climb into reach and Eridan decided it was time for him to go to sleep as well. As for Sollux, he started to have a daymare a while after dawn, and jumped awake with a surprise gasp, and tears running down from his eyes and coating his cheeks slightly with a light yellow tint. He sat up, sniffing and shaking. He felt horrible both physically and mentally, and, truthfully quite alone. This wasn't the first time he felt like this either, which seemed to just mount on the fact that he obviously did have an issue rather than just being sick. More upset and horrible feelings emerged from it and he just merely tried to hug himself and cry it all out.

Sollux usually did have quite a bit of mood swings, but it seemed that the moods that really did hit him quite hard rather than anything was the lows of his bipolar nowadays. It was getting to a point where it was actually making him feel a lot worse off than whenever he went into a manic state. He quietly sobbed into a pillow. He felt like no one else know what he was going through and that they probably saw him as just a mere freak, reminding him of how this whole thing started and how he started to feel so horrible. He hugged his knees once again and buried his face in the pillows once again.


	4. Trying to Escape

He kept his face buried and quietly sniffled till he felt something slipping off his shoulders; It felt like a hug and was warm, so he pulled it up again and curled up in it on the pillow pile. He couldn't see that it was Eridan's cape at the time, and probably wouldn't care; it felt comforting and nice for a change instead of just wallowing in self pity in the said pillows. It helped him also finally return to his slumber after a while. Though he was back to sleep, he ended up waking at dusk in another fir of a nightmare and sobbed once again into the pillows and the cape. He felt like everything was merely falling apart around him and crumbling to dust. He lightly hiccuped from crying so hard and sat up, holding his head and shaking it slightly to himself. He got up and sent to his computer desk, getting into a drawer in it and, before he could pull out what he wanted, he glanced at the 'blanket' that had started to fall again and frowned. He saw that it was Eridan's cape and started to wonder if the seadweller might actually care about him by sheer chance.

Eridan, in his own room, slept until the sun once again set. He got up slowly and decided to wake himself up with a swim since he was both a seadweller and lived right on the alternian sea's reach. He thought about a few people during this swim and eventually thought about Sollux. Sollux still had his cape was the first thought, then the thought of his problem that still lingered. He was complaining that he would get sick too last time he addressed the problem which, in Eridan's mind, he believed to be complete bullshit. There was obviously something wrong aside from possibilities of him being sick, or actually sick and there being another underlying problem that he just seemed to not click with in his mind for some reason.

He felt like he was just being stupid because he couldn't tell what was wrong. Eridan got up out of the water and dried off. Sollux, in his own room, had actually tried to get a hold of Eridan. He was unsuccessful though, as seeing that Eridan was still outside and away from his keyboard at the time. Eridan finally got to his room once again and got on a new change of clothes, then checked his husktop. he looked surprised that Sollux had messaged him first and was surprised about what he had read that was sent to him. It was a message he knew he had to at least try to respond to in a civilized way at the least.

"-twinArmageddons [TA] started trolling caligulasAquarium [CA]-

TA: ii thiink haviing you over ye2turday for a whiile made me feel a biit wor2e and better at the 2ame tiime

TA: doe2nt make any 2en2e but of cour2e that2 normal for me

TA: you left your cape here by the way and ii wiill claiim iit iif you dont come get iit

CA: i left yesturday and left the cape there because you looked like you slept more peacefully wwith it as a blanket

CA: also didnt wwanna risk wwaking you and gettin yelled at more

CA: im still gonna harass you today about wwhats wwrong

TA: ii would prefer you diidnt actually

CA: you knoww i wwill anywways

TA: 2eriiou2ly dont

TA: ii had a breakdown earliier and dont want two deal wiith iit riight now

TA: liiterally not iin the mood and ii dont feel liike botheriing wiith you today anyway2

TA: 2o dont you dare or ii wiill break your computer

CA: sollux wwait a minute

-twinArmageddons [TA] ceased pestering caligulasAquarium [CA]-"

Eridan's heart sank and he felt a bit irritated at both Sollux and himself. He should have asked Sollux what was wrong again instead of just immediately having said that he was just going to harass him more about the same exact thing. He should have also seen that this was already bound to have happened and probably not have bothered, but this also made him wonder about something. The real reason that seemed to be be the only logical one became quite a bit more obvious to Eridan. All the signs that made him feel more stupid for not realizing them; detachment from liked activities, not talking to anyone even slightly, isolation, really, mostly upset from what he could tell, and not showing much emotion at all or even care/desire to want to do anything. Eridan didn't personally smile himself, probably since he was a small wriggler, but he knew that Sollux did more than him by a long shot.

Eridan quickly got up, stretched and sighed, then typed another message to Sollux, knowing he might be at risk for doing something really stupid to himself if he wasnt watched for it and it making him feel a bit sick, and slightly worried.  
'-caligulasAquarium [CA] started trolling twinArmageddons [TA]-

CA: i'm coming ovver there'

He then proceeded out to go and get Sollux out of his depression rut as best as he could before he ended up like Eridan was before. He knew it wasn't a good thing and he hated being depressed and it made him hate himself and everything else. Maybe not as much as Karkat, but it still was not a good cycle and it could be vicious at some points. Sollux, in the mean time, had grabbed a few things and his husktop, messaging Karkat once, then absconding from the hive before Eridan could get there, not wanting to have to deal with Eridan at the moment and trying to get himself as far away as possible from the current situation and the only one he could trust to keep where he was a secret truthfully was Karkat.


	5. Isolating the Problem

"SOLLUX WHAT THE FUCK I SAID NOW WASN'T A GOOD TIME YET YOU STILL DECIDE TO DRAG YOUR SORRY ASS OVER HERE?" Karkat was pissed, as usual. Sollux didn't really seem to care at the moment though.

"Yeth yeth I did now you have two deal with me until fithdick will leave me alone," He scowled and just went and laid somewhere in Karkat's room.

Karkat glared and crossed his arms, "Why the hell is Eridan bugging you and is this something I should be concerned about?" Karkat still had his voice loud.

"Because I have been sick and didn't want to deal with anyone and, in response, as he usually does he harassed me more and now wont leave me alone even though I'm feeling a bit better now but is convinced that there is something else wrong when there isn't," He explained bluntly.

Karkat just shook his head and scowled out a 'whatever you're a fucking idiot either way' at Sollux, then went back to what he was doing before. Sollux just sighed inwardly so that Karkat didn't hear it and start ranting at him or start to get suspicious that there was actually something wrong with him that he didn't know, which was true either way, but he didn't need both Eridan and Karkat to go after him and harass him because then he would just probably get worse. He knew Karkat wasn't much better off than him anyways and didn't want to burden him with further shit that seemed to be pointless to him anyways.

Karkat was a bit shocked that Sollux suddenly decided to pay a visit until he was explained that Eridan was being a harassing little asshole anyways and decided to target Sollux for it. He felt like there was something wrong with Sollux, but he decided not to pry. As long as Sollux wasn't doing anything that was actually stupid there was no reason to. Especially if all it would do is irritate him. As it was he wasn't completely okay with Sollux staying over let alone hiding from Eridan in his hive. Let alone if he started to also complain about him harassing Sollux about it too it would add to his even more contemptuous irritation with the Captor staying over in his hive and he really didn't want that to happen.

Sollux was glad that Karkat left him alone and didn't want him to bug him about it, but Eridan wasn't happy when he found that Sollux had taken off and was now attempting to avoid him. Why would he avoid him if he had been able to make Sollux feel better in the first place though? Was he not wanting to admit that he helped him feel better? Eridan got irritated with this and kicked the side of Sollux's hive before deciding to snoop. He went around Sollux's room and actually cleaned it up a bit, getting irritated by the excess amount of wires and things flown carelessly here and there, eventually going over to where he was usually at and cleaned off the desk and organized it too. When he got to the drawer that Sollux kept most of his own stuff that was personal in it, his eyes widened and he let out a silent growl of unhappiness at what he had found.

Sollux finally opened his husktop again and saw that Eridan had decided to spam him. Eridan had in fact done this after he found what was in the drawer and all of the contents it had in it, really ranting at him.

"-caligulasAquarium [CA] started trolling twinArmageddons [TA]-

CA: sollux

CA: answer me wwhat the fuck did i just find in your room

CA: wwhy do you havve razors in that drawwer

CA: if you wwere using them for wwhat i think and probably knoww wwhat you wwere using them for

CA: you need to come back to your hivve before i hunt you dowwn and drag your ass back here i swwear to cod

CA: if you arent back here in a feww days i wwill seriously come an beat your ass back here"

Sollux tensed. What if Eridan actually did find where he was? He would surely get mad then most likely Eridan and Karkat would end up going at it and either way it would end with them still getting into a fight or both of them ending up harassing him about his depression instead and he really didn't want that to happen. He decided he would only camp out at Karkat's for about a day them return. Then hopefully he could keep it to the minimum so that Eridan get anyone else involved in this whole mess of things. He rolled over away from his husktop irritatedly then just ended up shutting it and deciding to take a nap.

Eridan, the day and a half that Sollux had stayed at Karkat's hive, waited for him to return and spammed him again the same way he did yesterday that he had to come back to his hive. He started to get a bit worried about this and paced around the hive for a few hours maybe two times. He hadn't slept well either that night and kept waking up and looking around for the other to see if he had returned, but he hadn't. The second day soon approached and Eridan tried to get himself to sleep better, eventually drifting off asleep. Sollux had shiftily avoided daywalkers and made it back to his hive from Karkat's own that day.

He found Eridan asleep in his pillow pile and frowned, quietly setting his husktop back in its proper place and putting the few things that he had brought to Karkat's away. He noticed that the room was tidied up and frowned more. He felt bad about just leaving Eridan here alone. Eridan himself seemed like a mess of himself just by the way he was curled up asleep. He moved and walked over to Eridan, crawling into the pile slightly tired and slightly upset, and snuck into his arms, wrapping his own carefully around the Ampora and resting his head against the others chest.

His eyes slipped closed and he soon drifted asleep. He was tired not only from the constant angry yelling from Karkat and the walk over here, but he was tired in general from how poorly he always slept. Let alone Karkat didn't appreciate that Sollux kept waking him up from all the daymares. He, though, didn't really have more than one that day, and for the most part just hugged Eridan closer when he was having one. He woke up once and buried his face in Eridan's chest, then fell back asleep. Eridan stayed asleep himself for the most part, almost waking up once from a daymare that Sollux was having, but once the other calmed down he drifted back into his deep sleep.


End file.
